Maps and battlefields

Batteries of Humaitá

The batteries and chains that closed the river.

The fortress closed the river with a line of batteries on the bluff and a barrier of chains stretched from bank to bank. The Londres battery had embrasures for sixteen cannons; the Chain battery had eighteen pieces according to a survey by Brazilian engineers.

‡ Disputed.The number of batteries and cannons varies by source: Burton, Thompson and the allied plans do not agree. ◊ The positions in the diagram are approximate.

Sources: E. C. Jourdan, plan of the batteries of Humaitá (1871); Richard F. Burton, Letters from the Battle-Fields of Paraguay (1870); “Fortress of Humaitá”, English Wikipedia.

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